In its annual letter, payments giant Stripe declared a "stablecoin summer" is underway, with its stablecoin orchestration platform, Bridge, seeing transaction volume more than quadruple in 2025. This growth occurred despite a broader "crypto winter," highlighting a decoupling of stablecoin utility from volatile market cycles.
Stripe reported that stablecoin payment volume doubled to approximately $400 billion in 2025, with around 60% of that volume stemming from business-to-business transactions, according to data from McKinsey and Artemis. The firm contrasted this with Bitcoin's performance, which fell 50% from its October peak and lost 6% over the course of 2025.
The company's strategic focus on crypto infrastructure is expanding. Bridge, acquired for $1.1 billion in late 2024, recently received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to become a federally chartered national bank. This charter will allow Bridge to custody crypto, issue stablecoins, and manage reserves. The platform has also expanded to support bespoke stablecoin issuance for companies through its Open Issuance feature.
Alongside Bridge, Stripe is developing Tempo, a payments-focused Layer 1 blockchain built in partnership with crypto firm Paradigm. The Tempo network entered public testnet in December 2025, and Stripe stated the mainnet launch is imminent.
Stripe's overall business processed $1.9 trillion in payments last year, a 34% increase from 2024. The company also announced a tender offer that values it at $159 billion, a significant jump from its nearly $100 billion valuation in late 2024. Major investors in the tender offer include Thrive Capital, Coatue, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
